Monday, December 31, 2018

Consumer like Eat-Out while Eating-In as documented many times over the past
eight years by our own Grocerant
Guru®. In fact is the team at
Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® after identifying, quantifying, and
qualifying Eating-In while Eating-Out has called it the new
normalwithin retail
foodservice and it will become a mainstay of food retail in 2019 according to Steven Johnson.

Food research companies the ilk of The
NPD Group have decided the team at Foodservice
Solutions® was dead right, spot-on, and correct last year in their National
Eating Trends Report NPD found that “Unlike recent generations, consumers today
are shifting toward eating more dinners at home, including those purchased at
restaurants” Think about it; eating-in while eating-out.

Yes, NPD found “the trend toward incorporating foodservice items
from restaurants or retail into a “blended” in-home dinner is on the rise, NPD
found. In the year ended in February 2017, 18 percent of in-home meals included
at least one ready-to-eat item from foodservice, up from 15.5 percent in 2015.”
The report found adults under age 40, which includes Millennials and Gen Z,
as the primary consumers of the trend.

Regular readers of this blog are also familiar with Foodservice
Solutions®FIVE P’s of Food Marketing.The Five P’s
were vetted, when they were identified, quantified, and qualified. The FIVE P’s
outlined seven years ago the undercurrents driving change within retail
foodservice today. NPD is catching up.

NPD went on to say “The
lower cost to eat at home and higher cost to eat at restaurants, combined with
the ability to order and have delivered just about anything online, are among
the reasons consumers are eating more at home. Additionally, there are fewer
Americans in the workforce today, due in part to a larger retirement-age
population.” However to the Team at Foodservice Solutions® it looks a lot like our work back in 2010.

Here’s our point today there is a reason we have over 275,000
followers on the business social media site LinkedIn. Industry professionals know the team at Foodservice Solutions® and our Grocerant
Guru® have been the leading foodservice insight, market positioning, and
trend undercurrents experts for the past ten years. We just wanted to thank you for flowing us
asking us the best questions that push us to do our best for you and companies
that want to move forward by Looking
A Customer Ahead.

Sunday, December 30, 2018

Foodservice
Solutions® Grocerant Guru®, Steven
Johnson stated “for 20+ years legacy grocery stores have been acutely aware
that consumers dislike going to the grocery store and spending 20 minutes just
to pick up one or two items.” Consumers have options and saving time is at the
top of most consumers shopping list according to Johnson.

What’s
even worse most legacy grocery stores continue to utilize category managers whose
sole job it is to ‘trick, fool, or confuse’ consumers into buying one product
over the other depending of the profitability of the product.News alert consumers have figured that out.It is just another reason that consumers are
migrating to new forms of fresh food distribution while avoiding legacy grocery
stores according to Johnson.

A
new study from Brick Meets Click
online grocery spending patterns of U.S. consumers forecasts a 15% growth rate
in 2019, driven by an increase in the overall share captured by online in 2019
to 6.3%. While that number is still small considering the size of the
marketplace.It is important to remember
that the convenience store sector is growing at roughly 3% in new stores per year
and c-stores have 3.5 times as many stores as there are grocery stores.

David
Bishop, partner with Brick Meets Click, noted in a release “Increasing the
number of households who have access to online grocery shopping services with
home delivery or pickup could add almost two points to the percentage of
U.S. households who buy groceries online, pushing the 2019 monthly rate past
25% at the national level," The simple fact is consumers simply dislike
spending so much time in a grocery store and then they still have to go home
cook, and do dishes.

Ok,
it is just that simple grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food
saves time and in most cased there are no dishes to do.If you are a food retailer and your year over
year customer counts are not going up its time to edify your grocerant niche
Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food platform.

Are you looking for a
new partnership to drive sales? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your
food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in
learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us can
edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient
meal participation, differentiation and individualization? Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us
or visit:www.FoodserviceSolutions.us
for more information.

Saturday, December 29, 2018

Customer relevance
is important to maintain. It does not
matter what industry you are in consumers are dynamic not static and when the
customer evolves retailers must as well according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru®
at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Let’s face it
Kombucha is the hot beverage and when Peet’s
Coffee announced
that bought a majority stake in kombucha maker Revive Kombucha, with
promises to bring the company’s drinks to more grocers and its own coffee shops
everyone knew that Peet’s Coffee was
keeping pace with consumers.

Revive Kombucha offers bottled
and on-tap kombucha and
has more than doubled in size over the past year. Peet’s said that its
financing will enable the brand to grow its operations and increase its distribution
through the coffee company’s network.

Peet’s
operates well over 200 coffee shops, mostly out West, and has a considerable
retail business inside grocers and its e-commerce platform. The company said
that it expects to expand Revive’s market into those channels.

Eric
Lauterbach, president of Peet’s consumer division, stated “Kombucha is a
natural adjacency to ready-to-drink coffee and our consumers tend to love
both,”… “Adapting our growth strategy to extend access and trial of superior
beverage choices across channels in new and convenient locations is key.”

The
deal continues a trend in which coffee chains are looking to expand into tea
and other beverage products. Starbucks, for instance, closed its Teavana shops
to focus instead on expanding that brand at grocers and other retail locations
as well as its own coffee shops.

So, we ask how are
you expanding your brand with relevance?Invite
Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Grocerant Program Assessment, Grocerant
ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our
Grocerant Guru®.Since 1991 www.FoodserviceSolutions.usof Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in
the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us
or 253-759-7869

Friday, December 28, 2018

In a world full of choice
consumers are opting to spend more time playing games on their computers,
watching sports on their 65 Inch HDTV or phone, texting, talking, and shopping
on a device rather than cooking according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at
Tacoma, WA based Foodservice
Solutions®.

The
simple fact is consumers do not have the skill set to cook the full-flavored
meals or meal components that they have grown up with. Consumers want fast,
fresh and flavorful easy meals for dinner.

As long as multi-generational family's gather for meals
together, the demand for more divergent flavors continues to permeate. Grocerant
mix and match bundled meal component offerings allow for increased family
integration, understanding and acceptance in less time without a required cook
from scratch skill set.

In the 1940's cooking from scratch was the normal. The
average home cooked meal took 150 minutes to prepare. Everyone sat down at the
table and enjoyed it or not but they all ate the same thing. Today's "home
cooked meal" takes on average less than 30 minutes to prepared. In most
cases at least two different entrées are served.

The average time spent inside a McDonalds in the 2,000
was 11 minutes. Today 65+ percent of all McDonald's food is sold via the
drive-thru. U.S. fast-food chains are increasingly remodeling restaurants in an
effort to garner additional drive-thru customers inside and increase sales,
simple because the drive-thru can't hold all the cars.

Are you selling
grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food that is
portable?How many items on your
restaurant menu could be sold as a meal component?How many items is your store could be prepared
fresh and sold as Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared item?Does your retail food-print look more like
1990?Where is your customer relevance in
the past, in today or in tomorrow?

Thursday, December 27, 2018

Looking a customer
ahead many times means just looking at today’s consumers path to purchase and follow
the according to Steven Johnson,
Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. At other times
it requires taking a look back then you can look forward according to Johnson.

Today we do both last
yeat UNiDAYS, uncovered
some interesting information in its Gen Z study: “What Restaurant Need to
Know,” highlighting key tips for restaurants to make inroads with Gen Z.
Exploring the attitudes and behaviors of Gen Z consumers. They found four key
themes restaurants need to pay attention to and our team thinks you should look
at as well:

1. Move Past the Broke
Student Mentality

According to the
report, 78 percent of Gen Z’s spend the majority of their money on food.
However, Gen Z has already proven to be more financially savvy than their
Millennial counterparts. So, even though they have the money to spend, they
want to be careful about how they spend it.

2. Community-Based
Incentives Are Key

Nearly 93 percent of
Gen Zs say they “are more likely to try a restaurant that offers discounts.”
UNiDAYS recommends creating a personalized experience for students in a
scalable way. Out of the Gen Z-er’s surveyed, 41 percent said they learn about
new menu items in the restaurant, and the remainder rely on social media
networks (20 percent) and friends (19 percent). The best way to market these
local offers are through community-based platforms that build brand affinities.

3. Embrace
Spontaneity

Gen Z’s are
spontaneous by nature. Only five percent of them said they plan their meals in
advance while 48 percent said they try a new quick-service restaurant chain
every month. Restaurants can take advantage of their willingness to try new
things by using real-time tactics such as mobile push alerts for promotions of
menu items and pricing geared towards Gen Z. Since they often communicate in
images, it’s critical to dedicate “resources to leverage images and video
snippets of your food across social and in promotions targeted at Gen Z.”

4. What Gen Z is
Craving: It’s Not About the Meal Plan

Almost 48 percent of
students don’t have a campus meal plan, and UNiDAYS says, “if they’re not
coming to you, then they’re checking out your competition - which includes
local and independent restaurants.” Students share that almost half of local
eateries provide special offers for them and 78 percent are taking advantage.

Success does leave clues www.FoodserviceSolutions.usis the global leader in grocerant niche
business development.We can help you
identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities.Has your company had a Grocerant ScoreCard
completed a Grocerant Program Assessment, or new Grocerant niche product
Ideation?Want one?Call 253-759-7869 Email: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us

Wednesday, December 26, 2018

So,
what’s the difference between a ‘food hall’ and a food court nothing according
to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at
Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.The simple fact is consumer tire of food courts and the retailers after
about 14 months.That’s the point that
retail turnover begins to pick up.

Regular
readers of this blog know our Grocerant Guru® has
documented many of the up-and downs of restaurants, caterers, and
non-traditional food operators trying this formula. The turnover at food hallsis much more noticeable that of ‘virtual food
halls’ which Johnson now thinks will have a longer staying power.

Last
year meal-preparation company Alacarte
has secured $700,000 in angel financing to form a partnership with UberEats
to offer what it said will be a “virtual food hall” experience. The Miami-based
company, which opened its first commissary in Miami Beach four months ago,
prepares food based on the specs of local restaurants that it’s partnered with,
along with concepts developed by Alacarte, allowing customers to order from
multiple virtual concepts and delivering it all at the same time.

“So
if the wife wants sushi, the husband wants Mexican and the kids want pizza,
they can all order it from us and have it delivered at the same time,” said CEO
and co-founder Ken Ray. Ray said that this latest round of funding came from
family and friends, but he recently visited venture capital firms in Boston and
New York to raise additional funds for further expansion in high-density markets.

Alacarte
has developed five concepts in its commissary: Bobby Ray’s Famous Fried
Chicken, Fresco Mexicano, Miami Poke Co., Mott St. Pizza, and Pollerio
(offering Latin-accented roasted chicken with sides such as beans, rice, fries
and coleslaw).

It
has partnered with local concepts Taekaway, which is Chinese, Maki San Sushi,
Rosewood Pizza, Whichchicken Rotisserie, Bottle Box (offering beer, wine and
sake) and a Chinese noodle restaurant called Chin Tu Fat.

Customers
can currently order from Alacarte via other delivery platforms such as
Postmates, GrubHub and Amazon Prime, but their software doesn’t allow customers
to order from Alacarte’s multiple virtual restaurants. The funding will help
Alacarte work with UberEats to develop software that will allow the “virtual
food hall” experience.

Are
you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing tactics look more
like yesterday that tomorrow? Visit www.FoodserviceSolutions.us
for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us
Remember success does leave clues and we just may the clue you need to propel
your continued success.

Tuesday, December 25, 2018

One thing that continues to
right true within the food sector is the fact that the undercurrents of a
cultural holiday shift in family traditions is underway as more and more
families opt for actives over hours in cooking, cleaning, and doing dishes
according Steven
Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at
Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. Skiing, walking, running,
shopping, binge-watching TV or sports are preferred over cooking from scratch
according to Johnson.

Cooking
from scratch is but a distance memory for most Americans.In fact, our most recent Grocerant ScoreCard revealed that 83.2%
of meals service at home for dinner included at least one grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat
or Heat-N-Eat fresh food item.

Sure
most of you know that our team identified the 65
Inch HDTV Syndrome first but this holiday shift holiday’s is an
undercurrent that progression from Thanksgiving plans even just six years ago
has moved the needle even more.

So
where did the NRA survey say consumers were going to go to eat dinner? According to the NRA survey, 31 percent of
diners eating out said they go to a local restaurant for dinner with another 30
percent saying they will head to a restaurant they usually go to for general
special occasions. Eighteen percent said they will try a restaurant they have
never been to before.

The
team at Foodservice Solutions® wants to wish everyone a happy holiday season
and no matter if your off skiing, boating, running, shopping, binge watching
your 65 Inch HDTV, or cooking from scratch we wish you well.

Success does leave clues www.FoodserviceSolutions.usis the global leader in grocerant niche
business development.We can help you
identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities.Has your company had a Grocerant ScoreCard
completed a Grocerant Program Assessment, or new Grocerant niche product
Ideation?Want one?Call 253-759-7869 Email: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us

Monday, December 24, 2018

No longer
do consumers drive by a C-store to go to a fast food restaurant according to
Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at
Tacoma, WA based Foodservice
Solutions®. In fact, Johnson says that grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat
and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food has become destination dining for many of
the 65.4% of American households that have one or two members.

In new
research from Datassential, found the following 10 trends are having the
greatest impact on the category right now and will sustain into 2019:

1. Find
the Right Balance Between Taste & Nutrition

The shift
to healthy eating continues to hit the foodservice market, and that includes
c-stores. Taste is the top driver for away-from-home purchases. However, health
and wellness was the fastest-growing driver between 2012 and 2016.

2. Customization
Counts

C-store
customers value a wide variety of choices in how they can top a prepared food
product. According to Datassential’s Keynote Report: C-Stores,
condiments serve as an indicator of quality and can be a way to both increase
the perceived range of offerings and allow for more consumer customization.

3. Simplicity
Satisfies

Some of
the highest-rated limited-time offers (LTOs) are basic concepts, like QuickChek’s Salt &
Pepper Fries, which was recently featured in Convenience
Store News' "What Hot on C-store
Menus?" department.

4. Global
Flavor Adds Variety

Ethnic
items such as egg rolls, empanadas and sushi are craveable to c-store
consumers. Adding global flavors to ubiquitous items is another way to add a
taste of the world and increase variety.

Sunday, December 23, 2018

Consumers
are dynamic not static and restaurant companies need to be as well according to
Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. When Dave &
Buster's announced that they were opening a smaller concept called T&T
Tacos it was clear that they understood today’s customers have evolved and as a
brand they need to do the same according to Johnson.

Dave &
Buster's CEO Brian Jenkins stated “We recently initiated a quick-casual
test in our Dallas store,” call T&T Tacos… We have converted one of our
special-event party rooms adjacent to the arcade into a highly visible area
where guests can order street tacos and drink,” Jenkins said. “The interior
includes a three-dimensional food truck façade.”

The
fact is Dave & Busters is downsizing according while creating a brand with
price points for today’s consumers according to Johnson. T&T Taco prices range from $4 to $5.50
each and include three traditional versions like carne asada and chicken fajita
as well as “twisted” takes that include an Oktoberfest with beer cheese.

Expanding
the brand even more there is a plant-based seventh taco that uses
Impossible-branded protein with onion, cilantro, aji crema and fresh lime. The
T&T Tacos outlet also offers adult beverages, such as beers for$5, fruit
cocktails for $5 and frozen margaritas for $8.

How is your brand evolving to
become more customer relevant? Foodservice Solutions®
specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify,
quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu
product segment and brand and menu integration strategy. Foodservice Solutions® of
Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit

Saturday, December 22, 2018

Foodservice Solutions® recent Grocerant ScoreCards have found that 83.2% of family meals
consumed at home have at least one grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat
fresh prepared food item according to Tacoma, WA based Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson.

Recently,
an Ohio State study founded that 80 percent of new restaurants failing within
the first five years. That same study suggested about 60 percent don’t make it
to year 2.

According
to Johnson the new norm for a success restaurant business model must include ‘takeout,
to-go, meals and meal components as consumers want to be ‘Eating-Out’ while
Eating-In”.Selling more food does not
mean filling more seats according to Johnson.

TSYS,
a global payment provider that generated revenue of $4.9 billion in 2017
while processing more than 27.8 billion transactions, conducted a payments
study of more than 1,000 U.S. consumers to take the pulse of this sector.

Here are
some key takeaways from the study:

Customers
are still dining out. As competition from to-go, more restaurants, delivery,
and C-stores squeeze the restaurant sector from all sides, there’s no evidence
to prove America’s affection for dining out is waning to any considerable
degree. TSYS’s study showed that 75 percent of respondents say they eat out at
least once a week, with nearly half (42 percent) eating out at least three
times a week.

But let’s
get to the payment part.

For those
diners who eat out two-plus times a week or more, this was their preferred
payment at the restaurant. It’s important to note this is paying at the table.
So you can scratch the pay-ahead through an app or site factor.

·46
percent prefer to swipe their debt/credit card

·41
percent prefer to insert their debit/credit chip card

·10
percent prefer to pay with cash

·3 percent
prefer to pay with their phone

The simple fact
is the day of the mom & pop restaurant using a cigar box as a cash drawer
are all but a distance memory.If
success leaves clues and it does.Restaurants
are food manufacturing plants.If a
restaurant wants to become successful, they must sell food in more than one
channel and that food must be branded.

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in
outsourced food marketing and business development ideations. We can help you
identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities,
technology, or a new menu product segment. Foodservice Solutions® of
Tacoma WA is the global leader in
the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson,
Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or twitter.com/grocerant

Friday, December 21, 2018

Lost in a
quagmire of yesterday’s messaging and today’s consumers Hy-Vee stores are all
to large for today’s consumers according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA
based Foodservice
Solutions®.

Many of the
legacy Hy-Vee store footprints are about 85,000 Square Feet even the new ‘Fresh
& Fast’ concept is 10,000 Square Feet?We ask why? Just how fast can it be to wander around within 10,000SQFT
looking for one or two items?

Here is a
conundrum I get asked all of the time.What
is it retailers so desperately seeking to move from selling food that consumers
want to stock a pantry to food for customers dinner don’t get? The answer is
very simple.It’s all about time for the
consumer.Consumers are attracted to
fresh and fast.Let’s face it a
10,000SqFt store is not about fast.

Invite Foodservice
Solutions® to complete a Grocerant Program Assessment, Grocerant ScoreCard, or
for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant
Guru®.Since 1991 www.FoodserviceSolutions.usof Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in
the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us
or 253-759-7869